22 Awesome Things that Happened in 2022
We wait every single year for the magic that comes with the holiday season. While December festivities are in the past, we are happy to look forward to the new projects and successes that are waiting for us in the new year. Here are 22 awesome things that happened for Wee Wild Ones in 2022!
1. From January to December, we hosted ten internal Community of Practices for all our team members. These workshops educated our community on the following topics: Workplace Mental Health Awareness, Supporting Children’s Emotions & Behaviour, Ages and Stages (ASQ) Questionnaires, Capstone: Team Experiences Group to Introduce Wellness Manual, Goal Setting, Risky Play and Exploring Outside, Literacy and Workplace Violence and Harassment. We look forward to continuing this ongoing education to our community and beyond in the new year!
2. For the month of March we launched the alliedFutures Project, an educational toolkit and webinar series hosted by settlers, elders and knowledge keepers collectively working towards Truth and Reconciliation. We reached an audience of over 500+ businesses and community members within the Calgary community and beyond!
3. Our Fairview location began weekly classroom adventures to Fish Creek Park! While still breezy in April, the children have had so much fun exploring the outdoors beyond our facility gates!
4. In June we launched our WilderFutures Young Readers Program. With local partners around YYC, we donated 150 books to purposeful organizations around Calgary successfully hosted three Live Reading Events at the Calgary Public Library! To learn more about our Young Readers Program, click here!
5. Our Mount Royal Capstone Group who developed the alliedFutures Project, spoke at the 2022 Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education (RECE) Conference this June, held at the University of British Columbia!
6. In honour of the Calgary Stampede, Wee Wild Ones held our third annual Wee Wild West in July. Our little ones held their own Stampede Parade to kick-off the Greatest Show On Earth.
7. In the month of September we acknowledged 12 team members with our second annual Wee Wild Ones Values & People’s Choice Awards!
8. We also had the wonderful opportunity to host our incredible team members under one roof for our Good to Great meeting in September! Our team enjoyed a buffet brunch and interactive activities to build on our value of connection!
9. From September 2022 to April 2023, Wee Wild Ones has partnered with 12 Mount Royal Child Studies Students to support them in their final Capstone project. This year’s focus is on three major themes: Curriculum, Team Experiences and WilderFutures. Click here to learn more!
10. In October we opened our doors to our third Wee Wild Ones location in the community of Currie! This means we can serve families in the community and continue to expand our impact.
11. For the month of October, we hosted our annual Monster March campaign and raised over almost $100,000 for the Children’s Cottage Society! We also threw our second annual Monster Market with over 60+ local vendors, and it was a hit!
12. As part of the Monster March campaign, we hosted our first ever Monster Scavenger Hunt around the community of Currie and gifted one lucky winner a year of free childcare at any centre in the city!
13. We teamed up with local watercolour artist Katie Green who designed a whimsical and captivating Youth Legacy Mural. Originally imaged by youth around YYC, this mural now lives on the walls of Wee Wild Ones newly opened Currie location!
14. We celebrated our two year anniversary of our centre-wide cloth diapering program, Nature Calls in November! Today, we are proud to share that we have prevented 169,920 disposable diapers from our landfills! That's an average of 300 diapers per day, 6,000 per month, and 72,000 per year.
15. In November, we launched our Wee Wild Ones library! Our internal library aims to improve access to books on popular topics, holidays and books focused on Wee Wild Ones values. The library was created in hopes of streamlining book needs and ensuring everyone has the materials they require for teaching and learning!
16. Our Founder, Chloe Dusser received the Business in Calgary Leaders Award and celebrated at the Gala in November! We are beyond proud of her accomplishments.
17. Near the end of November, we hosted our first in person Winter Wonderland Holiday Party for all our wonderful Team Members to celebrate our collective accomplishments over the past year.
18. Leading up to the Holidays, Wee Wild Ones and WilderFutures had the wonderful opportunity to attend this year’s Market Collective! We had so much fun connecting with the Calgary community.
19. The month of December is dedicated to giving to others, which is why we partnered with the Children’s Cottage to Stock the Cottage! Our entire community banded together to provide for those who need it most!
20. We celebrated seven team members being promoted to leadership positions this year with an additional six educators growing into Program Lead roles! We look forward to seeing the growth in each of them this upcoming year!
21. Over the course of twelve months, nine team members continued their education and received their level 2! In addition, we partnered with CDI College to gift one lucky winner a $1000 scholarship from our Wee Wild Ones team. The winner will have the opportunity to grow her education within the early childhood education industry. Wait a go team!
22. Lastly, we welcomed nine new little wild ones into the world! We can’t wait to meet the smiling faces of our educators newborns.
Thanks for sticking around during this wild ride of a year. We know that together, we can do anything that we set our minds to. Let’s focus on the positive, set new goals and tackle 2023 as a community!